Reddit Readonly
Read-only Reddit browsing for Clawdbot.
What this skill is for
- •Finding posts in one or more subreddits (hot/new/top/controversial/rising)
- •Searching for posts by query (within a subreddit or across all)
- •Pulling a comment thread for context
- •Producing a shortlist of permalinks so the user can open Reddit and reply manually
Hard rules
- •Read-only only. This skill never posts, replies, votes, or moderates.
- •Be polite with requests:
- •Prefer small limits (5–10) first.
- •Expand only if needed.
- •When returning results to the user, always include permalinks.
Output format
All commands print JSON to stdout.
- •Success:
{ "ok": true, "data": ... } - •Failure:
{ "ok": false, "error": { "message": "...", "details": "..." } }
Commands
1) List posts in a subreddit
bash
node {baseDir}/scripts/reddit-readonly.mjs posts <subreddit> \
--sort hot|new|top|controversial|rising \
--time day|week|month|year|all \
--limit 10 \
--after <token>
2) Search posts
bash
# Search within a subreddit
node {baseDir}/scripts/reddit-readonly.mjs search <subreddit> "<query>" --limit 10
# Search all of Reddit
node {baseDir}/scripts/reddit-readonly.mjs search all "<query>" --limit 10
3) Get comments for a post
bash
# By post id or URL
node {baseDir}/scripts/reddit-readonly.mjs comments <post_id|url> --limit 50 --depth 6
4) Recent comments across a subreddit
bash
node {baseDir}/scripts/reddit-readonly.mjs recent-comments <subreddit> --limit 25
5) Thread bundle (post + comments)
bash
node {baseDir}/scripts/reddit-readonly.mjs thread <post_id|url> --commentLimit 50 --depth 6
6) Find opportunities (multi-subreddit helper)
Use this when the user describes criteria like: "Find posts about X in r/a, r/b, and r/c posted in the last 48 hours, excluding Y".
bash
node {baseDir}/scripts/reddit-readonly.mjs find \
--subreddits "python,learnpython" \
--query "fastapi deployment" \
--include "docker,uvicorn,nginx" \
--exclude "homework,beginner" \
--minScore 2 \
--maxAgeHours 48 \
--perSubredditLimit 25 \
--maxResults 10 \
--rank new
Suggested agent workflow
- •Clarify scope if needed: subreddits + topic keywords + timeframe.
- •Start with
find(orposts/search) using small limits. - •For 1–3 promising items, fetch context via
thread. - •Present the user a shortlist:
- •title, subreddit, score, created time
- •permalink
- •a brief reason why it matched
- •If asked, propose draft reply ideas in natural language, but remind the user to post manually.
Troubleshooting
- •If Reddit returns HTML, re-run the command (the script detects this and returns an error).
- •If requests fail repeatedly, reduce
--limitand/or set slower pacing via env vars:
bash
export REDDIT_RO_MIN_DELAY_MS=800 export REDDIT_RO_MAX_DELAY_MS=1800 export REDDIT_RO_TIMEOUT_MS=25000 export REDDIT_RO_USER_AGENT='script:clawdbot-reddit-readonly:v1.0.0 (personal)'